Card feeding mechanism and feed knife therefor

ABSTRACT

A common drive mechanism for reciprocally feeding in a common plane, a card from the bottom of a card stack in a first direction and sequentially moving the card in a second direction at right angles thereto. An L-shaped lever couples respective card feed knives, the lever pivoting about an axis passing through the junction of the lever arms. A cam follower on one arm contacts a rotating, axial face cam. One of the reciprocating card feeders includes a plurality of spaced, aligned card feeding knives consisting of a stamped metal blade with an elongated narrow, torsionally flexible handle coupling the blade to a reciprocating support at its forward end with an upstruck indented feeding edge removing the lowermost card from the stack.

- United States Patent CARD FEEDING MECHANISM AND FEED KNIFE THEREFOR 9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 27 1/44 B65h 3/24 Field of Search 271/44, 54

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/1931 Moritz 271/44 Primary Examiner--.loseph Wegbreit Attorney-Sughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn and Mac Peak ABSTRACT: A common drive mechanism for reciprocally feeding in a common plane, a card from the bottom of a card stack in a first direction and sequentially moving the card in a second direction at right angles thereto. An L-shaped lever couples respective card feed knives, the lever pivoting about an axis passing through the junction of the lever arms. A cam follower on one arm contacts a rotating, axial face cam. One of the reciprocating card feeders includes a plurality of spaced, aligned card feeding knives consisting of a stamped metal blade with an elongated narrow, torsionally flexible handle coupling the blade to a reciprocating support at its forward end with an upstruck indented feeding edge removing the lower-most card from the stack.

PATENTEU JUN 8L9?! 3,583, 699

SHEET 1 [IF 2 INVENTOR ELWOOD C. CAMPBELL BY ZN ATTORNEYS PATENTED JUN 8 191:

SHEET 2 OF 2 FIG. 2

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to card feeding mechanisms and in particular to a reciprocating card feeder for removing the lowermost card of a stack.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART the devices remove the cards in sequential fashion from thebottom of the pack to a position either longitudinally or laterally offset from the stack whereby, a completely separate and independently driven feed mechanism subsequently moves the card either along the same path, or along a path at some angle to that of the initial card movement. The feed knife which contacts the lowermost card of the stack, has in the past consisted of one or more rigid members having a raised edge, for movement into contact with a selected card edge to cause reciprocation of the bottom card only. Due to the necessity of alignment of the feeding edge of the picker or feed knife with the thin edge of the card, card feed mechanisms have necessarily been formed of precision parts which are accurately located with respect to each other and in which movement is achieved in a precisely defined manner requiring expensive manufacture thereof. Further, card warpage, or variation in card thickness may cause difficulty in card feeding or actually prevent the same.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is directed to a simplified, inexpensive card feed mechanism for feeding cards sequentially from the bottom of the card stack, along a common plane in a first direction, i.e. laterally of the longitudinal axis of the card stack, and sequentially in a second direction at right angles to the first feed path by a common drive mechanism.

An L-shaped lever is pivotally mounted at the point of junction of the right angle arms and one of the arms carries a cam follower which is in contact with the axial cam face of a cam which rotates about an axis at right angles to the pivot axis of the L-shaped arm. The outer end of one arm is pivotally coupled to a first card feed knife assembly to remove the lowermost card of the stack and move it laterally, to a position, wherein a second card feed knife assembly during reciprocating return of the first feed knife assembly causes movement of the card along a path at right angles to that of the first path.

Preferably, the first card feed knife assembly consists of a pair of longitudinally spaced, parallel card feed knife blades of stamped metal having a broad picker portion underlying the card stack and an upstruck indented feeding edge for contact with the lateral edge of the lowermost card during feeding. A torsionally flexible handle extends in the direction of card feed and is connected at its forward end to the reciprocating blade support.

The broad picker portion tilts under torsional load to maintain feeding edge alignment with the edge of the bottom card regardless of card warpage. The torsionally flexible handle is preferably stamped into inverted U-shaped cross section and an upstanding locating pin fixed to the reciprocating blade support has its tip received within the handle recess to prevent bending of the torsionally flexible handle if the indented blade feeding edge should contact a cocked card. The leading end of the handle is pivotally coupled to the reciprocating blade support by a pin whose axis is at right angles to the direction of card feed. Means may further be employed for coupling the broad picker portion of the blade to the blade support for pivoting about an axis in line with the torsionally flexible handle to facilitate blade tilting during card warpage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view ofa card reader employing the improved reciprocating card feed mechanism and the stamped feeding knife of the present invention as a portion thereof.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view, partially in section, ofa portion of the card reader of FIG. 1 including the improved reciprocating card feed mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partially in section, of the card feed knife blade assembly forming a portion of the feeding mechanism of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view, partially in section ofa portion of the card feeding mechanism of FlG. 2 with the knife blade feeding edge in contact with the edge of the card during feeding of the bottom card of the stack.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a card reader of the type disclosed in copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 782,946, entitled Card Reader Employing Stacker With Offset Memory," to Elwood C. Campbell filed Dec. l l, 1968, and assigned to the common assignee. In general, the card reading mechanism 10 includes a card stack or pack receiving portion 12, a reciprocating card feed mechanism indicated generally at 14 and forming the present invention, a card read mechanism indicated'generally at 16, a selectively operated deflecting mechanism 18 and a card stacker 20 for receiving cards which are either in alignment with the card feed path, or angularly offset therefrom. The card reader 16, the deflecting mechanism 18 and the specially formed stacker 20 form no part of the present invention.

The present invention is concerned with the mechanism for reciprocably feeding the cards in serial fashion from the bottom of the card stack 22 by moving the same laterally of the card stack as indicated by arrow 24 through a narrow longitu' dinal slot 26 formed in vertical sidewall 28 to a laterally spaced position, within a bin or area 30 defined by parallel sidewalls 28 and 32. The reciprocating feed mechanism 14 of the present invention also includes means for sequentially feeding the selected cards from bin 30 along a right angle path as defined by arrow 34 by means of a common drive mechanism, best seen by reference to FIG. 2.

It is noted, however, that the card reader includes a baseplate 36 which supports the spaced sidewalls 28 and 32 and an end wall 38 of limited width which defines a stop for the leading edge of card stack 22 as it is supported on stack support plate 40. The stack support plate 40 is further provided with a pair of narrow slots 42 along the right-hand edge through which protrude, rollers 44 which facilitate feeding of the bottommost card through the narrow slot 26 of sidewall plate 28. These elements are conventional to reciprocating card feed devices and allow selective removal of the lowermost card of the stack and feeding of the same, generally at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the card stack along a horizontal plane.

The card feeding mechanism of the present invention has application to bottom feeding of either 51 column or column record cards. In the present case, stack 22 comprises 80 column record cards. At the rear end of the stack, FIG. 1, there is provided a pivotable extension support plate 46 mounted for rotation by pins 48 about a horizontal axis in the manner as indicated by arrow 50 under the bias of coil spring 52 which tends to cause plate 46 to assume a vertical position indicated in dotted line form, in the absence of a stack of cards of the 80 column type. For instance, where the feed mechanism feeds 51 column cards in serial fashion, the rear edge of the 5l column cards are in close proximity to the pivoted plate 46 which remains in the upright position. In either position, however, there is no obstruction to the feeding of cards. This is initiated by a pair of card feed knife blade assemblies 54 and 56 which contact simultaneously, the outer edge of the lowermost card to move it transversely of the stack as indicated by arrow 24. The individual knife blade assemblies 54 and 56 are mounted for reciprocating motion along a horizontal plane by strip supports 58 and 60 which are pin coupled by mounting pins 62, to blade assemblies 54 and 56 and their lower ends are apertured to receive transversely extending common support rod 64. Brackets 66 are fixed to the plate 36 and are apertured to receive rod 64 which extends thereacross. Oscillation of the support strips or arms 58 and 60 is indicated by arrow 68 during reciprocation of the knife blade assemblies 54 and 56 by a common drive mechanism, seen best in FIG. 2.

Reference to FIG. 2 shows a common drive mechanism for moving paired knife blade assemblies 54 and 56 and reciprocating picker knife or plate 76 which reciprocates in a right angle direction to the original direction of the card movement, as indicated by arrow 70. ln this respect, the reciprocating card feed plate 76 moves within a slot (not shown) formed within bed 74, FIG. 1, which supports the card within area 30. lt is essential therefore, that the reciprocating plate 76 be allowed to move in the direction of its longitudinal axis but be restrained from lateral movement, whereby either struck up feed tab 78 or 80 contacts the rear edge of a card after moving into area 30 of the card reader to drive the same forwardly with respect to reader 16. Meanwhile, the common drive mechanism for the reciprocating feeder 14, returns the paired card feed knife blade assemblies 54 and 56 to the dotted line position shown in F IG. 2 prior to subsequent feeding of the new bottom card of stack 22. In FIG. 2, the bottommost card 82 of the stack is shown in position for feeding in the direction of arrow 24 in which case, the lateral edge 84, is in edge abutment with the upstruck, indentedfeeding edge 86 of respective feed knife blades 88 and 90.

The common drive mechanism is extremely simple, is positive in operation, and insures movement of cards from the bottom of the stack, first in a lateral direction with respect to the longitudinal axis of the stack, through slot 26 of the sideplate, and into the card reading feed area 30, overlying fixed support 74. The card then moves in the direction of arrow 34 during the return stroke of the paired card feed knife blade assembly 54 and 56. Likewise, during the feeding of the bottom card of the stack, from stack area 12 into reader card area 30, the reciprocating feed plate 76 returns from its foremost position to its rearmost position. Either of the upstruck tabs 78 and 80 are then in position to contact the rear edge of the card, depending upon whether the card is a 51 column record card or an 80 column record card.

In this respect, a drive motor 94, supported by the baseplate 36, provides continuous rotation to output shaft 96, the end of which has fixedly coupled thereto, sprocket 98. The endless drive belt 100 acts to drive a relatively large diameter sprocket 102 and a much smaller sprocket 104. Sprocket 104 is carried by shaft 106 to which is coupled the friction drive rollers 44 which assist movement of the selected cards in a lateral direction as indicated by arrow 24 from the bottom of the stack to the card read area 30, passing through slot 26. The shaft 106 is supported for rotation by suitable means (not shown). Likewise the driven shaft 108 having large sprocket wheel 102 fixed thereto is likewise supported for rotation about the shaft axis by suitable bearings or the like (not shown) on baseplate 36. The right-hand end of shaft 108 (FIG. 2), carries a rotary cam member 110 having an axial cam face 112. Rotation of the rotary cam 110 is controlled by clutch mechanism 114 which is energized in a selective manner (by means not shown). Thus, the cam rotates about the axis of shaft 108.

An important element of the common drive mechanism consists of an L-shaped lever 116 having arms 118 and 120 which extend generally at right angles to each other from their point of intersection which also forms the pivot axis for the lever. in this respect, a vertically positioned pivot mounting pin 122 includes a portion 124 which passes through aperture 126 of the lever. The mounting pin is fixed and allows the L- shaped lever to oscillate in the manner of arrow 128 about the mounting pin axis. The L-shaped lever is biased in the position shown, by coil spring 130 having one end 132 coupled to arm 118 and the other end 134 coupled to a fixed pin 136. The arm 118 of the L-shaped lever 116 also carries in depending fashion,,cam follower 138 which is in edge abutment contact with the axial cam face 112 of the rotary cam. Arm 118 at its outer end has fixed thereto, an upstanding pin 140 which is pivotally mounted to the bottom of plate 76 (by means not shown) such that during oscillation of arm 118, the feed plate 76 reciprocates in the manner of arrow 70.

Arm 120, on the other hand, at its outer end is pivotally coupled to a T-shaped drive lever 142 having paired arms 144 and 146 which are fixedly coupled to respective Z-shaped knife blade supports 148 and 150 respectively. Suitable guide means are employed such as upstanding plate 152 which extends parallel to and adjacent the vertical terminal end 154 of arm 146 to insure, that as the T-shaped lever 142 moves along a line passing through its base, the paired feed knife blade assembly 54 and 56 reciprocate along straight line parallel paths.

Another important aspect of the present invention is the individual card feed knife blades forming the principal components of assemblies 54 and 56. Reference to FIG. 3 shows blade 88 of stamped sheet metal characterized by an upstruck indented feeding edge 86 which is formed within the broad, flat picker portion 156. The knife blade is T-shaped in plan configuration, and includes a rather narrow, torsionally flexible handle or connecting portion 158. The blade 88, for instance, is stamped from thin sheet metal with the torsional flexible handle 158 being of reverse U-shape in cross section and having at its forward end, extended sides 160 which are bored to receive a mounting pin 162, which extends at right angles to the longitudinal axis of handle 158.

In this respect, the Z-shaped support plate 148 is provided with a central, upstanding, apertured plate portion 164 to which is fixedly attached pin 162. Further, at the opposite end of support plate 148, an L-shaped support block 166 is fixedly coupled thereto and carries a fixed pin 168 which forms a pivot axis in line with the torsionally flexible handle 158. Further, there is fixed to the bottom surface of the card feed knife blade picker portion 156, and L-shaped tab 170 which is apertured, to receive the protruding portion of pin 168. Tab 170 is rigidly coupled to the bottom of the picker portion of the knife blade 156 and is free to pivot about pin 168. Alternatively, the tab 170 could be formed as a unitary struck out portion of the stamped blade for maximum simplification in blade manufacture. Thus, with the handle being pivotably mounted to the support plate 148 at its forward end by pin 162, at right angles to the direction of blade movement, the trailing edge of the assembly including the flat picker portion 156 of the blade 88 is pivotably coupled to the same support for movement about the axis of pivot pin 168 which is in line with the handle. Since the flexible handle portion 158 is torsionally flexible, and with the card stack 22 resting upon picker portion the upper surface of picker portion 156, there is a tendency for this portion 156 of the blade to tilt as indicated by arrow 172 about pivot pin 168 in response to card distortion. The relatively thin feeding edge 86 of the blade 88 is insured of being in line with the lateral edge 84 of the card being fed. ln this respect, the right-hand picker blade 86 may be horizontal while blade 88 is tilted slightly to one side or the other to follow warping of the left-hand side of the card.

Since the card feeding knife blade 88 and 90 are formed of thin sheet metal by stamping the same, and since the flexible handle portion 158 is purposely made torsionally flexible to allow tilting or rocking in the manner of arrow 172, FIG. 3, the unitary stamped blades are quite fragile and must be protected against undue stress or distortion. In this respect, if any of the cards were to be misaligned in the stack, that is angularly offset about one comer or the other, there would be a tendency for point contact rather than line contact between the reciprocating blade edge and the edge of the card. Point contact would tend to bend the thin flexible blade at some point between pin connections 162 and 168. In order to prevent undue flexing of the flexible handle in a lateral direction intermediate of its pinned ends, there extends upwardly, from support 148, pin 176 whose tip 178 is received within the U- shaped flexible handle 158 so that the lateral movement of this portion of the handle is prevented. This, of course, does not interfere with torsional deflection or tilt of the blade picker surface portion 156 as indicated by vertical arrow 172, and the curved arrow 179 in the vicinity of the forward pin 162.

The operation of the common drive mechanism and the dual reciprocating feeder for feeding a selected card in a first direction and then at right angles thereto is believed to be selfevident from the previous description. However, briefly, with a card 82 positioned as indicated in the FIG. 2, energization of clutch 114 causes the constantly driven shaft 108 to effect rotation of axial cam 110 whereby, cam follower 138 which follows the axial cam face 112, causes the right-hand arm 118 of the L-shaped lever to move from right to left which results in movement of picker knife plate 76 to the left from the position indicated. Simultaneously, the paired flexible feed knife blades 88 and 90 of assemblies 54 and 56, move from the full line position to the dotted line position, whereby the upstruck, indented feeding edges 86 contact the lateral side edge 84 of the card. As cam 110 continues to rotate, the bias of spring 130 causes the cam follower 138 to follow the cam surface 112 while the L-shaped lever pivots in a clockwise direction, as viewed from above, in FIG. 2, moving the card laterally from left to right through slot 26 of vertical plate 28 while simultaneously, the picker knife plate 76 moves from left to right whereby, in the case of an 80 column card, the rear edge 92 of the card moves to a position directly in front of upstanding tab 80 of the knife feed plate 76.

During a second cycle of operation the rotary cam 110 causes the L-shaped lever to again rotate in a counterclockwise direction returning the paired flexible card feeding knife blades 88 and 90 to the dotted line position for picking the succeeding card from the bottom of stack 22 while the upstanding tab 80 of feed knife blade plate 76 causes feeding of the previously selected card in the same plane and in a forward direction, through the trough area 30 and into card reading position with respect to reader 16. Selective energization of clutch 114 continues to feed the cards in serial fashion from the bottom of the stack 22 in a cyclic manner.

While the feed mechanism and the unique torsionally flexible card feeding knife blade of the present invention has been shown as applied to a card reader, it of course may be applied to any card feed mechanism in which it is desirable to achieve feeding of cards from the bottom of a vertical stack of cards or from a deck on edge where weight is applied in a first direction to one side of the stack, and in a second direction at some angle thereto. Further, due to the fact that the lateral feed edge of each blade extends across a considerable portion of the contacting card edge, it is apparent that cards of shorter or longer length may be fed in which one or more than one feed knife assembly comes into contact with the cards during feeding. The tilting of the picker portion of each knife blade individually compensates for card warpage in either direction, while the upstanding pin 176 which is received within the inverted U-shaped, torsionally flexible handle, prevents lateral deformation of the portion of the knife blade during edge misalignment between the any one of the cards and the reciprocating blade.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A reciprocating card feed mechanism for feeding the lowermost card of a card stack in a first direction to one side of the stack, and for sequentially moving said card in a second direction at some angle thereto, said mechanism comprising; a generally L-shaped lever having arms at some angle and dividual card warpage.

mounted for pivoting about an axis passing through the line of juncture between said arms, individual card feed means pivotally coupled to the outer ends of respective arms for contacting said cards to move the same in sequential directions, and driving means for oscillating said L-shaped lever about its pivot axis to simultaneously move said individual card feed means.

2. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of said card feed means comprises a T-shaped member having its base pivotally coupled to the free end of one of said L-shaped lever arms, individual knife blade assemblies carried at the ends of the crossarms of said T-shaped member, said blades having parallel feeding edges for simultaneous contact with a common edge of the card and being mounted for movement in spaced parallel fashion, and means allowing individual tilting of said knife blades about an axis in line with the direction of blade movement for insuring card edge abutment with the blade feeding edge regardless of individual car warpage.

3. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for oscillating said L-shaped lever comprises a rotary cam having an axial cam face, a cam follower carried by one of said arms of said L-shaped levers in edge abutment with said axial face cam, and means for selectively rotating said cam.

4. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of said individual card feed means comprises a reciprocating picker knife plate, a pair of longitudinally spaced deflector tabs upstruck from said plate whereby, regardless of the length of the information cards being fed, one of said picker knife tabs completes edge contact with said card to feed the same in asecond direction. I a

5. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 2 wherein each of said card feeding knife assemblies include a unitary, stamped card feed knife blade includes a torsionally flexible portion to restrain said blade against tilting in response to individual card warpage.

6. A rec ipr ocating card feed mechanism for feeding the lowermost card of a card stack along a path at right angles to a selected card edge comprising, means for supporting said card stack, reciprocating knife support means positioned beneath said card stack, a thin metal knife blade having a broad flat picker portion, an integrally formed, torsionally flexible portion extending from said picker portion in the direction of card feed, an upstruck, indented feed edge carried by said picker knife in line with a selected card edge and means for coupling the outer end of said torsionally flexible portion to said reciprocating knife support means with the end of said flexible portion restrained against rotation about the torsion axis whereby, the torsionally flexible portion allows said broad flat picker portion to pivot about the torsion axis in the direction of movement of said blade in insure alignment between the feeding edge and the card edge regardless of in- 7. The card feed irfechanism as claimed in claim 6 wherein the means for connecting the outer end of said flexible portion to said reciprocating support comprises a horizontal pin coupling the forward end of said torsionally flexible portion to said support with the pin lying at right angles to the direction of movement of said blade and said reciprocating support.

8. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 6 further comprising a depending tab carried by said broad flat picker portion of said knife blade, and pin means coupled to said reciprocating support and forming a pivot coupling with said tab with the pin axis in line with the direction of movement of said reciprocating support and picker knife blade.

9. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 7 wherein the torsionally flexible portion is of inverted U-shape in cross section, and said reciprocating support includes an upstanding pin having its terminal end received within said inverted U- shaped flexible portion, intermediate of the connecting points of said blade to prevent deformation of said feed knife in case one of said cards being fed is angularly cocked relative to the feeding edge of said unitary blade. 

1. A reciprocating card feed mechanism for feeding the lowermost card of a card stack in a first direction to one side of the stack, and for sequentially moving said card in a second direction at some angle thereto, said mechanism comprising: a generally L-shaped lever having arms at some angle and mounted for pivoting about an axis passing through the line of juncture between said arms, individual card feed means pivotally coupled to the outer ends of respective arms for contacting said cards to move the same in sequential directions, and driving means for oscillating said L-shaped lever about its pivot axis to simultaneously move said individual card feed means.
 2. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of said card feed means comprises a T-shaped member having its base pivotally coupled to the free end of one of said L-shaped lever arms, individual knife blade assemblies carried at the ends of the crossarms of said T-shaped member, said blades having parallel feeding edges for simultaneous contact with a common edge of the card and being mounted for movement in spaced parallel fashion, and means allowing individual tilting of said knife blades about an axis in line with the direction of blade movement for insuring card edge abutment with the blade feeding edge regardless of individual card warpage.
 3. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for oscillating said L-shaped lever comprises a rotary cam having an axial cam face, a cam follower carried by one of said arms of said L-shaped levers in edge abutment with said axial face cam, and means for selectively rotating said cam.
 4. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of said individual card feed means comprises a reciprocating picker knife plate, a pair of longitudinally spaced deflector tabs upstruck from said plate whereby, regardless of the length of tHe information cards being fed, one of said picker knife tabs completes edge contact with said card to feed the same in a second direction.
 5. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 2 wherein each of said card feeding knife assemblies include a unitary, stamped card feed knife blade includes a torsionally flexible portion to restrain said blade against tilting in response to individual card warpage.
 6. A reciprocating card feed mechanism for feeding the lowermost card of a card stack along a path at right angles to a selected card edge comprising, means for supporting said card stack, reciprocating knife support means positioned beneath said card stack, a thin metal knife blade having a broad flat picker portion, an integrally formed, torsionally flexible portion extending from said picker portion in the direction of card feed, an upstruck, indented feed edge carried by said picker knife in line with a selected card edge and means for coupling the outer end of said torsionally flexible portion to said reciprocating knife support means with the end of said flexible portion restrained against rotation about the torsion axis whereby, the torsionally flexible portion allows said broad flat picker portion to pivot about the torsion axis in the direction of movement of said blade in insure alignment between the feeding edge and the card edge regardless of individual card warpage.
 7. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 6 wherein the means for connecting the outer end of said flexible portion to said reciprocating support comprises a horizontal pin coupling the forward end of said torsionally flexible portion to said support with the pin lying at right angles to the direction of movement of said blade and said reciprocating support.
 8. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 6 further comprising a depending tab carried by said broad flat picker portion of said knife blade, and pin means coupled to said reciprocating support and forming a pivot coupling with said tab with the pin axis in line with the direction of movement of said reciprocating support and picker knife blade.
 9. The card feed mechanism as claimed in claim 7 wherein the torsionally flexible portion is of inverted U-shape in cross section, and said reciprocating support includes an upstanding pin having its terminal end received within said inverted U-shaped flexible portion, intermediate of the connecting points of said blade to prevent deformation of said feed knife in case one of said cards being fed is angularly cocked relative to the feeding edge of said unitary blade. 